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Drury scores twice in second period as Buffalo tops Boston

Feb 2, 2007 - 5:39 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- It was not as easy as the first game of the home-and-home series, but the Buffalo Sabres got the same result.

Chris Drury scored twice in the second period as the Sabres completed a sweep of the home-and-home set with a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.

All-Star Game MVP Daniel Briere added two assists to extend his points streak to seven games for Buffalo, which pasted Boston, 7-1, on Tuesday to close January with a 6-7-1 record, its worst monthly mark since December 2003.

"We knew we were up against a team that was going to fight pretty hard because of being embarrassed in our building (Tuesday night), and it was a hard-fought game," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "I thought it really could have gone either way."

Drury, who also tallied twice Friday at Columbus, scored 3:47 into the middle period to tie the contest before netting his 29th of the season at 9:11 for a 2-1 edge.

"We were a little sluggish in the first and Lindy was letting us know it," Drury said. "We made a lot of turnovers in the first and created chances for them. We were able to fix that between the intermission, and from there, I thought we were pretty good."

Jason Pominville gave the Sabres some breathing room when he converted 6:01 into the final period.

Goaltender Martin Biron won his fifth straight game against the Bruins, stopping 30 shots. The Sabres' backup has allowed just eight goals in those contests.

Tim Thomas made 24 saves for the Bruins, who have been outscored, 22-4, during their current five-game losing streak.

"Sometimes you get pushed to the edge, and we're at the edge right now," Boston coach Dave Lewis said. "You fight or flee. Some guys have stepped up and fought, and others have not yet."

Buffalo improved to 5-0-1 this season against Boston.

The Bruins grabbed a 1-0 lead 3:15 into the game, when Glen Murray stole the puck from Sabres defenseman Dmitri Kalinin in the left corner and delivered a backhand pass to Marco Sturm in front of the net. Sturm beat Biron cleanly with a wrist shot for his 13th goal of the season.

Drury tied it when he skated out from behind the net and wristed a shot past a sprawling Thomas, who tried to come out and knock away the puck.

Buffalo moved ahead when Drury attempted to center the puck from the left corner, only to have the puck carom off the body of defenseman Brad Stuart and past Thomas.

"It happened to me the other game when it hit my skate, and now Stuart today," Boston center Patrice Bergeron said. "It's kind of the story of the last couple of games, but we can't think about it, we can't think about the negative. We've got to go, stand up and go even harder."

"That (unlucky goal) was like what happened to us earlier in the year at Florida, when (Joe) Nieuwendyk scored," Thomas said. "They gave us bounces and we didn't capitalize, but we gave them some and they did."

Pominville capped the scoring off a faceoff, when he took a pass from the right wing boards by Jochen Hecht and rifled a one-timer past Thomas.

Sturm left late in the third period and received seven stitches in his face and chin after being struck by the stick of Buffalo defenseman Henrik Tallinder.